Hastings And St Leonards Councillors Agree New Parking Restrictions

Friday, 21 February 2025 10:30

By Huw Oxburgh

New parking restrictions are set to come into force in Hastings and St Leonards after proposals gained the go ahead from county councillors.

On Wednesday (February 19), East Sussex County Council’s Planning Committee signed off on plans to update a set of Traffic Regulation Orders, which govern parking restrictions within the town.

The updates come as part of the council’s annual review of parking in the area. The committee considered 13 of the proposals contained within this review, each of which had seen objections raised by residents.

Most of these contested proposals (seven out of 13) related to the use of double-yellow lines.

These included plans to install new double-yellow lines at: the junction of Fredrick Road and Coghurst Road; Chambers Crescent; the junction of

Chapel Park Road and St John’s Road; Holmesdale Gardens; and Fern Road. The proposals also included plans to extend existing double-yellow lines in West Hill Road and Spring Street.

The Holmesdale Gardens proposals also incorporated plans to extend the operational times of a paid parking bay in Cornwallis Gardens.

The paid parking will now be in operation from 09:00 to 20:00, having previously been in operation between 09:00 and 18:00 instead.

While all seven of the above had seen objections, the committee only opted to amend the proposals for the junction of Fredrick Road and Coghurst Road.

This amendment, which had been recommended by officers, reduced the area of new double-yellow lines by six metres — effectively creating an additional parking space.

The six remaining contested proposals related to the use of blue badge bays. These included plans to: add new bays in Alfred Street and Newgate Road; remove bays from both Blackman Avenue and Linton Road; and ‘formalise’ an existing bay in Burry Road.

The final proposal involved converting a loading area in Denmark Place, splitting it into both blue badge parking and a section of motorcycle-only parking.

Of these, only the proposal to remove a blue badge bay from Blackman Avenue was not agreed by the committee.

The committee heard how Blackman Avenue currently has two blue badge bays, which officers said were rarely both in use.

While officers had recommended that one of the bays be removed as a result, the committee opted not to move ahead with the proposal as a result of objections from a resident and ward councillor Phil Scott.